Flooding
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Flooding in Cologne is the city’s most regular catastrophe though it can never be predicted nor hardly forecasted. Therefore a proper protection plan is needed more than anything else to be able to rescue and secure the city’s population in case of emergency. Cologne had its last big floods in 1993 and 1995 and it is very likely that another, maybe even higher flood may happen very soon. In case of emergency the Cologne protection plan consists of evacuation of people (if needed) and goods (such as cars) and mainly protection from the water through protection walls, sand barriers and water pumps. There are also many danger maps, which clearly list all consequences and potential dangers for all different water levels. There are different plans for different water levels, such as emergency and escape roads to be used etc. The flood protection office also worked out a financial damage plan depending on water levels and the possible damage with and without flood protection. One major task of the flood protection office is warning the population, since awareness always fades the longer no flooding happened. But people can be only save if they always know when to react how. There are many electronic monitoring and planning devices to help protect the city. The office also helps to develop and spread preventive techniques and it takes part in flood-oriented city networks and EU-Projects such as the NOAH-Project. But the most important focus in flood protection is the warning of the population, because you never know, when the next flood will come, you only know that it will come.
Newsletter 7 on Workshop 6: Risk management and training
